Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Statistics Canada Report on Sexual Misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces

"From April to June, 2016, active Regular Force and Primary Reserve
members were invited to complete an electronic questionnaire asking
about their experiences and perceptions of inappropriate sexualized
behaviour, discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or
gender identity, and sexual assault within the Canadian Armed Forces.
This included seeing, hearing or experiencing these types of behaviours
within the military workplace, or outside the military workplace but
involving other military members or Department of Defence employees or
contractors. Responses were received from over 43,000 active members of
the Canadian Armed Forces, including members of the Regular Force and
Primary Reserve."

Among the highlights:

In the past 12 months, just under 1,000 Regular Force members of
the Canadian Armed Forces, or 1.7%, were victims of sexual assault (i.e.,
sexual attacks, unwanted sexual touching, or sexual activity to which
the victim is unable to consent, which occurred in the military
workplace or involving military members, Department of National Defence
employees, or contractors). Unwanted sexual touching was the most
common form of sexual assault, reported by 1.5% of Regular Force
members.

Women in the Regular Force were more likely than men to be sexually assaulted (4.8% versus 1.2%) in the past 12 months.

Half (49%) of women who were victims of sexual assault in the
past 12 months identified their supervisor or someone of a higher rank
as the perpetrator. For male victims, a peer was most commonly the
perpetrator (56%).

Among Regular Force members, 27.3% of women and 3.8% of men have
been victims of sexual assault at least once since joining the Canadian
Armed Forces. More specifically, 24.0% of women and 3.4% of men in the
Regular Force have been victims of unwanted sexual touching, the most
common type of sexual assault.

Four in five (79%) members of the Regular Force saw, heard, or
were personally targeted by sexualized behaviour in the military
workplace or involving other military members, Department of National
Defence employees, or contractors, within the past 12 months.

Sexual jokes were the most common type of sexualized behaviour in
the workplace, seen, heard, or experienced by 76% of Regular Force
members. Of those who reported sexual jokes in the workplace, almost
half (46%) stated that they occurred ten or more times in the past 12
months.

One-third (34%) of Regular Force members saw, heard, or
experienced discriminatory behaviour in the workplace in the past 12
months. This discrimination most typically took the form of suggestions
that people do not act like men or women are supposed to act (22%).

Close to one in five (17%) Regular Force members were personally
targeted by sexualized or discriminatory behaviour in the past 12
months. Women were twice as likely as men to report being personally
targeted by sexualized or discriminatory behaviour in the workplace or
involving military members (31% versus 15%).

Monday, November 28, 2016

2015-16 Annual Report of the Library of Parliament

The Library, which provides research and information services to Canada's federal parliamentarians, produces many documents that are also very useful to the law librarian community, including HillNotes (blog-style overviews of important and emerging issues), in-depth background papers, and legislative summaries of bills before Parliament.

The Action Committee was convened 2008 by the Rt. Honourable Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, to bring together stakeholders interested in improving access to civil and family justice in Canada.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Statistics Canada Article on Homicide in Canada, 2015

Canadian police services reported 604 homicides in 2015, 83 more than
the previous year. The homicide rate increased by 15%
in 2015 to 1.68 per 100,000 population, the highest rate since 2011.

The
higher number of homicides for 2015 was primarily due to increases in
Alberta (+27 homicides), Saskatchewan (+19) and Ontario (+18).

One-quarter
(25%) of the 604 homicide victims were reported by police as an
Aboriginal person. As well, 33% of accused persons identified in solved
cases were reported as an Aboriginal person. Overall, Aboriginal people
accounted for about 5% of Canada's population in 2015.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Supreme Court of Canada Calendar of Upcoming Hearings

To find out more about any particular case,
the Court's website has a section that allows users to find docket
information, case summaries as well as facta from the parties. All you
need to do is click on a case name.

American Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Taming the E-Mail Beast

"Every day, managers and
professionals are getting buried under a continuing stream of both
useful and useless e-mail. Without a system for getting 'control of the
beast', professionals spend much of their work (and personal) time
spinning wheels and feeling highly unsatisfied. Learn a proven system
for taming your email account, with strategies for keeping your inbox
efficient and under control by building and administering a personal 'email infrastructure'. Learn how to get rid of all those 'quick little'
emails once and for all, as well as how to mitigate or even eliminate
much of that annoying junk and spam. Learn several key technical tips
for better managing your email using market-leading software. Finally
feel on top of your email and related activities, rather than feeling it
is on top of you."

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Launch of National Database of Professionals Assisting Self-Represented Litigants

The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) has launched a National Database of Professionals Assisting SRLs that seeks to link Canadians without legal representation with legal professionals willing to offer them individualized assistance.

"This is an initiative that we have been working on since last spring,
slowly coaxing lawyers and others to step forward and become part of the
National Database so that clients can find them. Before that, since its
inception in 2013 NSRLP has promoted the idea of unbundled legal
services, legal coaching, the use of paralegals where appropriate, and
relevant assistance by other professionals via this blog, countless
speeches to law societies and bar associations, and media interviews
promoting affordable legal services for the primarily self-represented."

The NSRLP comes out of the work of the University of Windsor's Dr. Julie Macfarlaneand is a a clearinghouse for information and resources related to the phenomenon of self-represented litigants.

"The concept of post-truth has been simmering for the past
decade, but Oxford shows the word spiking in frequency this year in the
context of the Brexit referendum in the UK and the presidential election
in the US, and becoming associated overwhelmingly with a particular
noun, in the phrase post-truth politics."

Runners-up for the word of the year in 2016 included:

adulting, n. [mass noun] informal
the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible
adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.

alt-right,
n. (in the US) an ideological grouping associated with extreme
conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of
mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate
deliberately controversial content.

Brexiteer, n. British informal a person who is in favour of the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union.

chatbot, n. a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.

glass cliff,
n. used with reference to a situation in which a woman or member of a
minority group ascends to a leadership position in challenging
circumstances where the risk of failure is high.

hygge,
n. [mass noun] a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that
engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining
characteristic of Danish culture):

Latinx, n. (plural Latinxs
or same) and adj. a person of Latin American origin or descent (used as
a gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina);
relating to people of Latin American origin or descent (used as a
gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina).

It also examines homicides of sex workers, and criminal court outcomes for prostitution-related cases.

Among the highlights:

Between 2009 and 2014, the period prior to the
introduction of new legislation that made it illegal to purchase sexual
services, there were 16,879 prostitution incidents reported by police in
Canada. These incidents represented less than 0.1% of all crimes
reported in Canada in the same time period.

In 2014, there were 3.0 police-reported prostitution offences per 100,000 population, the lowest rate since 1982.

The majority of prostitution offences (82%)
reported between 2009 and 2014 were for communicating or attempting to
communicate with a person for the purpose of engaging in or obtaining
sexual services.

Close to half (43%) of persons accused of a
prostitution-related offence between 2009 and 2014 were female, compared
with less than one quarter (23%) of persons accused of any offence
overall during the same time period. Females accused of prostitution
were much younger than males (median age of 31 versus 42).

Repeated contact with police for
prostitution-related offences was more frequent among female accused
(27%) compared with male accused (3%).

Between 1991 and 2014, there were 294 homicides
of sex workers. One in three (34%) homicides of sex workers remained
unsolved; a much greater proportion than for homicides that did not
involve a sex worker victim (20%).

Between 2008/2009 and 2013/2014, under one
third (30%) of prostitution cases processed in criminal courts resulted
in a guilty verdict; this was much lower than the proportion for
criminal court cases in general (64%).

"Movements like the push toward next-generation automated library
systems and Linked Data are all shifting the landscape of library
solutions. Want to know what’s coming down the pike? Ask Marshall!"

"Join Eric Keith, SirsiDynix Chief Marketing Officer, for a
conversation with Marshall Breeding, the creator and editor of Library
Technology Guides. Learn where the field of library technology is going
in this Q&A-style webinar in which Eric Keith will ask Marshall your
questions."

Amendments to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada

The amendments include a new process for giving notice when an appeal
raises a constitutional issue, as well as new deadlines for serving and
filing appeal documents. An online Guide exists to help explain the changes.

Monday, November 07, 2016

Updated Research Guides From GlobaLex

GlobaLex, the electronic collection created by the Hauser Global Law
School Program at the New York University School of Law, recently
updated some of its research guides:

Researching the United Nations: Finding the Organization's Internal Resource Trails: "The United Nations is such a massive organization that its wide array of processes and products require enough reference sources to warrant a map and compass for navigation. As a map, here are suggested search techniques for several standard types of queries and, as a compass, here are the U.N.'s many diverse search tools organized into resource types."

European Union Legal Materials: An Infrequent User’s Guide: "This guide is intended for the researcher who infrequently needs to research European Union (EU) law or related materials or to locate EU official documents. The expert or experienced researcher should consult the research guides listed at the end of this article for more detailed information on EU legal materials. With the addition of Croatia in 2013, the EU has a population of approximately 508 million people comprising twenty-eight European nations. The EU gross domestic product has a value of nearly U.S. $18.5 trillion, a bit larger than the U.S. economy. Because the EU is a major trading partner with the United States, knowledge of EU law will become more widespread as this organization takes a more prominent role in international trade and international affairs generally. Even the law library that does not consider international law a strength of its collection will occasionally have to meet the needs of patrons seeking to locate information on EU law."

"Established in 1991, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) travelled across Canada documenting the issues and challenges facing Indigenous Canadians and their communities. Over its six-year mandate, RCAP amassed thousands of hours of recorded testimony and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, culminating in the publication of the 1996 RCAP final report complete with a series of recommendations for a renewed relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada(...)"

"LAC launched a searchable database of select RCAP records at the
commemorative national forum. The database contains transcripts of more
than 175 days of hearings; nearly 200 research reports; more than
100 submissions from tribal councils, organizations and interest groups;
as well as RCAP publications and the final report."

White Paper on Defining ROI: Law Library Best Practices

In an e-mail message to AALL mmbers, the association's president Ronald E. Wheeler introduces the document:

"Today's legal market demands that legal information professionals identify, measure, and communicate the benchmarks and metrics of value. AALL members who served as authors have mined their own experiences to share their measures for success, creating engaging and practical guides for defining ROI. The articles draw from renowned historical sources such as the Five Laws of Library Science by S. R. Ranganathan, as well as highlight the contemporary knowledge of Don Draper, the iconic fictional '60s ad man from the TV show Mad Men. The goal of this white paper is to spark creativity and innovation for measuring value within the profession."

Nominations for the Next Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing Due Feb 17, 2016

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate
or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a
work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution
to legal research and scholarship.

Members as well as non-members of CALL can make nominations. Nominations
can be submitted to Annette Demers, Past CALL President, until February
17, 2017. She can be reached at lawlibrarian AT uwindsor.ca.

Earlier today, Eric Appleby, MLB CEO and Colin Lachance, CEO of 9766758 Canada Inc. and former CEO of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), published a press release announcing that MLB "will shortly re-launch with a world-class legal information processing engine that leverages cutting edge natural language process technology to make research easier and more efficient."

Disclaimer

Neither the content nor the views contained in this blog represent the positions of my employer or of any association to which I belong. Any links to a news article, an academic study or another blog post should not be considered to indicate any form of endorsement on my part or on that of my institution. This is a purely personal blog for the purposes of sharing information about library issues and legal research.